Bare bottom or not?

[Bucrob]

I'm about to start up my fourth reef tank. I wanted to go predominantly SPS this time as all of my other tanks have been LPS and softies mostly. The tank is a 62 gallon tideline lagoon and my biggest issue with my reefs has always been phosphates. I heard that bare bottom helps with nutrient export and can allow you to increase flow in the main display for SPS. I intend to do a fuge in one of the back chambers so maybe I could throw some sand in with the fuge to still have sand that bacteria can cultivate on. My stocking would be kept pretty minimal with me hoping to stock the tank with:
2 Snowflake Ocellaris Clowns
3 Banggai Cardinals
1 Tailspot Blenny
1 Midas Blenny
1 Longnose Hawk
1 Target Mandarin
1 Pink Streak Wrasse or some other smaller variant of wrasse that can help control small pests
1 Tomini Tang
Idk what to do but I got a bit before the tank is fully up since I still need a stand for it. What do you guys think?
I also want a plate coral which I've heard does better on sand so...

 

[JumboShrimp]

Fact: It will never look like the ocean without the sand. (Lol.)

 

[Bucrob]

Fact: It will never look like the ocean without the sand. (Lol.)

6:05 in this video, he makes a strong argument for bare bottom looking more natural

 

[Bucrob]

6:05 in this video, he makes a strong argument for bare bottom looking more natural

Another option is something like what they show at 9:30 in this video, its some sort of reactor media I believe is what he called it

 

[Science/G]

I've had bare bottom reefs for 30 years. Sand is just a magnet for dinos and cyanobacteria IMHO. Increased flow and less maintenance is a plus. For a more natural look in my latest reef, I lined the bottom with a piece of beige acrylic. It's covered with Ricordia now, but initially it looked like a sand bed. Top down pic from years ago

 

[vinsk]

I just got the dry installation done for my UNS R75 today! I’m really trying to decide to go with sand or not. I have CaribSea live sand bagged and ready to go. I agree with the cons of sand, but I have some livestock I’ll be relocating to this tank including 2 conch snails and a peppermint shrimp. Won’t they do better with sand? What about the benefit of the bacteria you get with having a substrate and not a bare bottom?

 

[Bucrob]

I just got the dry installation done for my UNS R75 today! I’m really trying to decide to go with sand or not. I have CaribSea live sand bagged and ready to go. I agree with the cons of sand, but I have some livestock I’ll be relocating to this tank including 2 conch snails and a peppermint shrimp. Won’t they do better with sand? What about the benefit of the bacteria you get with having a substrate and not a bare bottom?

For the most part, the bacteria can be replaced via biomedia in the sump/back chamber. Conchs cannot live without sand; they survive by eating algae out of the sand. Peppermint shrimp will be fine without sand.
I am facing this challenge too where I am debating going BB as I am starting a new reef tank and making my main reef FOWLR to accommodate for a Puffer. The tank in question though has inverts like nassarius snails, a very large queen conch, a sandsifting star, and 2 pithos crabs that I would need to move over. I am honestly tired of sand as it always seems to be a nutrient trap and my phosphates have always run high so im debating on surrendering the inverts in question or going with a very coarse sandbed like CaribSea Special Grade or even the route of using something like Two Little Fishies ReBorn calcium media.

 

[DSC reef]

I ran both systems with sand and bare bottom. I will say the bare bottom needed a bit more attention because of the detritus buildup that happened quickly and because I'm OCD so I had to vaccum it out immediately In the end its personal preference in my opinion. I don't think it helped much in nutrient export atleast I didn't know any difference in my 75 gallon with or without sand. I noticed both systems grew cyano and algae no different from the other. It was cool to see all the zoas and coral I had growing on the glass but I missed the look of sand and that bright reflection with the natural ripples from the flow. If you're going SPS dominate than you can run more flow being bare bottom but is it necessary? Either set up looked great and had its pros and cons but all future tanks of mine will have sand. One of many amazing things about this hobby, so many choices

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I will always be a fan of having sand over bare bottom. There’s pros and cons to both! Corals Depot made a good article recently that discusses the difference between the two. I would check that out!

 

[vinsk]

Thank you all. I think I’ll go with my CaribSea sand as it’s more coarse…almost like fine gravel. My 15g nano has fine sand and it’s been a bit of a pain.

 

[Fritz05]

And it of course depends on what animals you want to keep, as some need a sand bed or other substrate. For me, those are my favorites (e.g. watchman goby + shrimp).

 

[exnisstech]

Fact: It will never look like the ocean without the sand. (Lol.)

Fact #2 IMO it will never look like the ocean anyway, at least I've never had a tank that actually looked like the ocean. I've yet to see coral glowing in ocean videos lol.

I'm a fan of bare bottom. I like the look of sand but I fail keeping it looking nice. I have 80 lbs of new mesoflakes and reeflakes rinsed and ready to go into my new Mariner MP100 I'm setting up. My Gal and I were looking at the tank the other day and she says you aren't really going to put sand in are you? I replied probably not dear lol. All the detritus is collecting in a single area at the end of the tank where i can vacuum it out it minutes. I can't get flow like that with sand in a tank. I have 6 power heads in my 36x22x22" SPS tank 2 are orca 6105s running at 80% and two MP40s at 75% along with a Nero 5 at 60% and an jebao MP40 knock off at 50% I doubt if I could run that much flow if I had substrate.
In the mariner 100 I'm running 2 orcas and two MP40s all at 80% amd I'm afraid sand would just pile up at the end of the tank.
I don't really think bare bottom looks bad after the tank is running.
Few examples of my BB tanks for reference.

This one had some sand on the left end where I kept my derasa.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Your tanks look beautiful

 

[Freenow54]

Fact: It will never look like the ocean without the sand. (Lol.)

Obviously you never dove . Try it and see what it is like to go over an edge and look down into a bottomless void. It makes yo realize what " mystery " really means . Very Uncomfortable felling especially if you have seen documentaries of how great whites hunt seals in that situation

 

[X-37B]

I have 2 BB and 4 sand.
Higher flow is great but it does nothing for nutrient export.
If you want all acros the BB works real well when high flow is needed.
It take awhile for a BB to fill in. This is today at the 2 year mark.

 

[Freenow54]

I have 2 BB and 4 sand.
Higher flow is great but it does nothing for nutrient export.
If you want all acros the BB works real well when high flow is needed.
It take awhile for a BB to fill in. This is today at the 2 year mark.

Hey your back. I lost your reply of what lighting you are using . Could you do me a service and reply with the info again ? Really appreciate it

Wally

 

[X-37B]

Hey your back. I lost your reply of what lighting you are using . Could you do me a service and reply with the info again ? Really appreciate it

Wally

2 Photon 50's
3 Orphek OR4 UV/V bars

 

[Freenow54]

2 Photon 50's
3 Orphek OR4 UV/V bars

Thank You Wrote it in my log book this time

 

[Freenow54]

I have 2 BB and 4 sand.
Higher flow is great but it does nothing for nutrient export.
If you want all acros the BB works real well when high flow is needed.
It take awhile for a BB to fill in. This is today at the 2 year mark.

Can you explain Nutrient export ? Also a definition of the word. It seems to be bandied about constantly s to importance of having it then your statement a little confused

 

[Waters]

I like the look of CLEAN sand over BB......but I have failed to keep any tank sand clean. Therefore, I go with ease of maintenance and go BB lol. Healthier for SPS tanks (IMO) due to increased flow and potentially lower nutrients. All detritis collects in one corner where it can be easily removed.